PHILADELPHIA — Too late or not too late, Ryne Sandberg has help coming … and a plan to put it into place.

Cliff Lee, out since May 19 with a strained pitching elbow, was officially dropped Sunday into Sandberg’s post-All-Star break rotation.

Off until Friday, the Phils will return for a series in Atlanta. A.J. Burnett (6-8, 3.83 ERA) will pitch the opener, followed by Cole Hamels (3-5. 2.93) Saturday and Kyle Kendrick (4-9, 4.62) Sunday.

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They will return to host the San Francisco Giants the following Monday, with Lee (4-4, 3.18) and Roberto Hernandez (4-8. 4.22) the scheduled starters for the first two games.

“It’s set up not to give anyone nine days,” Ryne Sandberg said. “It will be good to give Cliff Lee a couple of extra days after his rehab start. Cole will be on his seventh day. So that had a lot to do with it.”

As the Phillies fell Sunday, 10-3, to the Washington Nationals, extending a losing streak to two, Sandberg was quick to snare any positives.

“We will have Cliff back in a short period of time,” he said. “Carlos Ruiz (recovering from concussion symptoms) will be back. So we do get to pretty much full strength. I’m anxious to see Grady Sizemore a few more games. Cody Asche is swinging a good bat and playing well. So we’ve got some things to look forward to.”

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For the second time in roughly a month, the Phillies won five consecutive games, then flopped. In June, they won five straight in Atlanta and St. Louis, then went onto a three-game losing streak.

Friday, they won for a fifth consecutive time, but they have dropped their last two.

“I would say that’s more or less baseball,” Asche said. “We ran into a good pitcher (Stephen Strasburg) with good stuff Saturday. But we battled back and had a chance to win there. Today we just didn’t battle hard enough. They got on top of us early and we didn’t stick with it and keep grinding out the at-bats and get back in the game. We had a couple of chances to and didn’t, and they just put their foot on the gas and took the lead.”

Asche had two doubles and an RBI Sunday. He also had a nice grasp of mathematics. By his count — and he’s accurate — the Phillies will go into the All-Star break having won five of seven.

“I don’t think we’re going to look at the last two games as a whole,” he said. “It’s what we’ve done the past seven games. I think there’s a good feeling with the team that if we play good baseball like we have the last seven games that we can make a run at things.”

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In all innings except the first, Kendrick has an ERA of 3.63. But his first-inning ERA of 11.37 is the worst in the majors.

“It’s been addressed and talked about,” Sandberg said. “He’s experimented with things. He gets away from his fastball and gets into the secondary pitches.”

With Kendrick pitching, the Phillies were behind, 3-0, after three batters Sunday.

“It’s a tough start,” Sandberg said, “when right off the bat the first time up, they get three.”

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The Phillies still have not won consecutive series since an April road trip through Los Angeles and Arizona. They are 7-14-2 in series since then. … Ryan Howard hit the All-Star break with 56 RBIs. … Chase Utley will take a .293 average to Minnesota as the Phillies’ only All-Star.